1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of energy recovery. More specifically, the invention relates to a method of recovering and recycling thermal energy from industrial and utility boiler applications.
2. Background of the Invention
Ethanol-based fuel production and industrial fermentation processes rely heavily upon the conversion of food crops to fuel or other chemicals. Corn, sugar beets, sugarcane, and other crops are regularly used as sources of starch or sugar. Implementation of crop-based feedstocks for ethanol fuels has negative implications in the global food stocks. Additionally, the temperate climate zones where these crops are primarily grown undergo seasonal changes that prevent the year round regular production of ethanol fuel demanded by industry and transportation.
Cellulose is a major structural component of nearly every plant, making it one of the most abundant molecules on the planet. Biomacromolecular cellulose consists of glucose monomers. Algin is a structural polysaccharide in the cell walls of marine plants. The biomacromolecule algin consists of D-mannuronate epimers. Furthermore, as a plant-produced material, both are easily renewable resources that do not require starch or sugar-rich food crops. The capacity to break them down into monomers yields an extensive supply of sugars for ethanol, other fermentation or other chemical syntheses. The primary difficulty with cellulose and algin is that it is difficult to hydrolyze to obtain the sugar monomers because the polymer is protected by a number of other biomaterials.
Hydrolytic techniques currently exist to hydrolyze cellulose to produce sugars. However, available technologies require costly physical plants and the infrastructure to operate them. The significant capital expenditure is a strong incentive for the avoidance of a company's investment in new plants or technologies for the exclusive production of fuel grade ethanol by processing of plant-based biomaterial. Further, the power supply industry is facing strict regulations on emissions produced from the burning of fossil fuels. Power plants are being required to add components and facilities such as treatment facilities, filters, heat exchangers, stack scrubbers, and energy capturing components to remove certain waste products and recycle energy released by the system. These additional facilities and components are required to lower the nitrogen oxide, sulfur, and mercury emissions to meet new regulations.
Power plant systems typically include boilers to produce steam for the process of the power plant system and often the waste heat from the boilers is lost and not recovered or recycled for reuse in the power plant system or other related process system. Consequently, there is a need for the recovery and recycling of the thermal energy from the burning of fossil fuels in the power plant system and using that thermal energy for the processing of biomaterials.